The World Food Programme (WFP) has revealed plans to use a $1.7 million contribution to scale school feeding in Malawi’s district of Mangochi from 2022 to 2024.
It is understood that the UN programme plans to use the contribution from the government of Iceland to provide 13,000 schoolchildren with nutritious meals.
The WFP school feeding programme aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) two, which aims to end hunger.
‘End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture’, goal two of the 17 SDGs read.
According to the United Nations (UN), 22 percent of children under five are stunted as a result of child hunger and malnutrition.
Development Diaries gathered that WFP’s school feeding intervention reaches about 600,000 children in seven districts in Malawi.
In a statement, WFP said that the food commodities will be procured from 1,500 local farmers in Malawi who will also benefit from skills development in production, post-harvest handling and marketing.
Under the home-grown school feeding model, WFP partners with schools through district councils to purchase food locally. Participating schools sign contracts with farmers to procure local and diversified foods.
‘Providing healthy food to children at school means better nutrition, improved health as well as increased access to education’, WFP Country Director in Malawi, Paul Turnbull, said in the statement.
‘We commend the government of Iceland for its strong commitment to the home-grown school feeding model that will also strengthen the local economy and the entire food value chain.
‘School feeding has multiple short- and long-term benefits. Global evidence shows that school feeding programmes have high return on investment’.
A 2019 evaluation of the WFP Malawi school feeding programme in primary schools found that school meals reduced absenteeism by five percentage.
A similar evaluation in 2018 found that WFP school meals increased attendance from 77 percent to 92 percent.
Data from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) shows that eight percent of the population are likely to face acute food insecurity, while 12.75 million people are likely to be classified in minimal acute food insecurity by March 2022.
WFP expects this new contribution to strengthen and consolidate the gains made since 2014, and contribute to the development of a sustainable model for the national school feeding programme.
Source: WFP
Photo source: WFP
